Singapore entitled to release documents on water issue: Law expert

Channel News Asia, Singapore, January 28, 2003
By Farah Abdul Rahim


AN Australian law lecturer, who specialised in international arbitration, said Singapore had every right to make public its exchange of letters with Malaysian leaders over the water issue.

This is provided that there was no prior agreement between the two countries to keep them secret.

Professor M. Sornarajah, Law Academic on International Arbitration at the National University of Singapore, said the 160-pages of letters, documents and agreements would likely be used as evidence in any arbitration over water.

He said Singapore was entitled to release the documents.

Malaysia had said Singapore acted in bad faith by releasing them.

Professor Sornarajah said: "Unless the parties agreed they should be kept secret and confidential, if there is no agreement to that effect, there is no reason why one of the parties should not disclose them.

"There is no reason at all why they should not come into the public domain so that people could understand the nature of dispute, which affects all of them."

He said there were two options - the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) at the Hague or arbitration according to Johor laws.

Professor Sornarajah said: "The water agreement is between two states because they were adopted by two states created after 1965, Malaysia and the sovereign state of Singapore - so the agreement is now a treaty and disputes relating to it are best settled through international arbitraiton done under a body like the PCA.

"The PCA carries far more weight within the international community than any ad hoc tribunal that could be set up."

Malaysia's Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar had initially raised this possibility of going to the Hague, but later he said it was not an option.

Professor Shunmugam Jayakumar, Singapore's Foreign Minister, had said in Parliament on January 25: "Now it has become clear that we cannot expect renewal of future supply of water. As this removes the basis for further negotiations, we are ready to have the dispute resolved through arbitration according to the laws of Johor."

Professor Sornarajah said since Johor laws are similar to English law, the arbitration process is subject to similar principles.

This means that as long as Johor laws are applied, the two countries can effectively arbitrate the issue anywhere in the world.

Each country will appoint one arbitrator from anywhere in the world. The two arbitrators then select a chairman for the tribunal.

This three-man tribunal will then set a time frame for the two countries to submit documents as well as verbal and written arguments.

Experts said there was no fixed timeframe for arbitration.

It depends on how long it takes for the two sides to chose the arbitrators.

At the earliest, it will take about six months, but they warned it could also drag on indefinitely.